Derwent Inktense Permanent Watercolour Pencils, Set of 12 in a Tin, 4mm Premium Core, Water-Soluble, Ideal for Colouring, Painting and Crafting, Professional Quality (0700928)

These Inktense pencils are fabulous. The colours are so intense and pigmented and I love them. The range of colours works really well. However, the packaging and presentation tin, although aesthetically great, are quite flimsy and quite poor compared to other quality pencils. This would not put me off buying them though as the quality of the pencils make up for this.

I love these oh so much. Do not confuse these with watercolour pencils. They are different. They are more like paint or ink than pencils. Once they're dry, they are permanent and no amount of water will activate and move the colour around (speaking for paper artwork, not other things like fabrics that might go in the washing machine). This is great because it means you can go over and add finer details with a different shade or colour without those details blending in to the layers below, like it would with watercolour pencils. Furthermore, because they are so intense in colour, you don't need to add nearly so much colour before activating with water like you would with watercolour pencils to get a lovely intense and vibrant look. But they are versatile enough to allow you to get soft looks too - just use less colour to the page before adding water or just use your brush to pick up colour directly from the pencil and then applying the colour to the page that way. Another option is to apply colour to only part of where you want to the colour to go and use the water to move the colour around, thus creating some lovely gradients of dark/intense to light/pale. So many techniques can be used that I won't even go into them all.The only criticism I have is that the colours on the end of the pencil barrel don't really reflect the colour of the actual ink. That's easily remedied just by creating a colour swatch for yourself and using that to determine your colour scheme rather than relying on the pencil to tell you the colour. That's such a minor issue, though.I so wish I had just jumped in and purchased the full 72 set instead of just the 36 set. I did not anticipate loving these as much as I do. I would dearly love it if Derwent did a secondary 36 set with the rest of the colours so that I didn't have to double up on half of my colours or resort to buying them open stock. But open stock is an option and thus, the smaller sets are worth buying if you want to spend less just to try out a selection of the colours.The packaging for this was well thought out. Not only was the tin sealed with plastic and some easy to peel stickers on either end of the tin, but inside had a seperate plastic covering over the pencil tray and strips of cardboard over the pencils to hold the pencils in place on the tray, thus not allowing the pencils to move around during transit. Well thought out and such a nice touch.One other thing to note: If you're a serious artist and intend to hang or sell your paintings or other artistic creations, be aware that although they're permanent, not all the colours are lightfast. You may wish to look into which colours are and consider if you're going to need to use some sort of UV fixitive to help protect your work.

love my new Inktense pencils, great colour range and so easy to use for colouring my crafting fabrics

Love these ink pencils. I am a beginner colorist and saw lots of great reviews on YT so decided to try them. The colors come to life when water is added. At this point in time I use them only for backgrounds for my pages but intend to try doing florals too so will be checking out the YT videos. They are expensive but I would recommend them to anyone who wants to add vibrancy to their coloring pages.

The pencils themselves are great, nice to hold and use, great colour range , my only negative is the packaging - the tin is very easy to open and doesn’t stay closed very well, other brands have a much better catch on the tins to close, the other negative are the trays they are so flimsy you can’t take them out with one hand without throwing pencils everywhere - for expensive pencils I expected better , faber castell and caran d’ache both have better trays and better tins

These are great to be used either as pencils or water colours. They blend really well and are very pigmented!I used them to draw over this charity shop painting.

I love the vibrancy of the colours, plus the blending

...half a year later (older, wiser (hah!), and with far more experience), these have turned to fierce addiction, a real goody to take on your travels! I simply cannot wait to wet the paper, just to see the inks transform something stale and dare I say, pasty and pencil-coloured looking, into something coherently marvellous, essentially: painted!With the basic shades, a mix of cool and warm, you can mix most colours (note the stupid names - Sea Blue, Bright Blue, Tangerine, Chili Red, etc). This 24 pencil tin goes far, and I've no intention of adding to the collection. Colours have never been so bright, fierce and bold - note they are inks which they are rather hush hush over, not pigments (albeit a fuzzy line but the former stain, hence will fade with time, so keep work away from sun - and any good colourist will know how to dull them accordingly for a catalogue of shades and hues. They claim to be permanent, but I'm not so convinced, but they do work on fabric amazingly!I was initially phased by the difficulty of working dry media into wet, expecting WC. Don't get water-soluble pencils thinking they're a dry form of WC, they're not: don't expect gorgeous washes. This is mostly for anal, detail work. They say they are easy to layer, i.e. using the dry pencil over a wash once dry, but it's not easy, unless your paper is heavy enough to withstand such working - I've found normal cartridge paper tends to break up.BUT, saying that, you can splatter (moisten the tip, use a brush to send a spray) and use a wet tip and 'paint' (but I've found the tip too softened to 'paint'). Go light, these are intense, hence the namesake.Now that I've a decent set of traditional WC, I would not chose these over them (whatever they say, doing the dry pencilling bit and moistening them after is tedium, something easily and more pleasurable done with WC and a good sable), but they're different mediums with individual qualities. But these will definitely go in my bag for holidays (with a water brush or not, since one charm is the ability to do the 'painting' at a more suitable time). So handy and great for mixing effects with normal WC. Relatively easy to sharpen, some are very soft and shatter easily. And they trumpet 'aquarelle pencils' (yes, I've a set of these to compare, and I rarely use them in favour of these beauties) in their density of colour, lay down and saturation which are funnily enough very similar in appearance to WC. If you're seeking for a look similar to WC (pale, washy tones), you're better off with aquarelle pencils, for these intense are so bold, you'd need a feather touch and patience (these saturated colours are more like felt-tipped pens).One last thing, a small annoyance, is their chunky, round shape, bouncing all over the place and hence making them more susceptible to shattering at the core. No biggie.Really they're not WC pencils, 'aquarelle', or the same as other sold water-soluble pencils. These are water-soluble INK pencils

Super bem embalado, excelente pigmentação. Valeu cada centavo

When I first started customizing doll faces, I bought Faber-Castell pencils, as they are suggested by almost every doll customizer. They wouldn't make a mark or it was so light you'd have to do several layers of Mr. Super Clean and penciling to get the desired strength. I sharpened them, thinking maybe they were a little dry. Then I concluded I was in over my head due to my inexperience with doll customization.I have some background in art. I sketch and paint. I also use Prisma color pencils in the artwork I sell. I found the option to paint with them to be cool. So I thought drawing little faces wouldn't be a huge stretch. It is not as easy as they make it look on Youtube. I had to use tons of Super Clean, and layers of Faber Castel to get the desired look. Not to mention, you better be able to see, or you are going to have to get readers and a good light.Months later, after I'd given up, a favorite doll customizer reviewed seven premium artist grade pencil brands. She tested the basic colors of like seven brands. It could be more, it's been a minute since I saw the review. She applied them to different surfaces, blended them and customized a doll head with each brand.Surprisingly, Faber-Castell came in at like forth behind a cheap Alie Express brand. Prismacolor was maybe third, behind a German brand that came second to Inktense, which was number one.Inktense was the best of all on blending, actually showing up and the colors were fuller and more vibrant. Some other pencils lost because even though they showed up the color was light or dull. Or the pencils crumbled or didn't color evenly. Some pencils were way too soft, or way to hard and required a lot of hard pressing. Which depending on what you're doing it could actually scrape the paint beneath. Some left chunks on whatever the surface and you couldn't just wipe them out without ruining the work just done.Inktense is creamy and smooth, but not too soft if you get what I mean. They are immediately stain the surface, with full and vibrant color. Now that I've used Inktense, I plan to invest in getting all the colors they offer. I also like that you can buy these individually. If you don't get these for doll customization, at least get the white. It is unmatched for eyes. It was the best by leaps and bounds in the test. Before I could afford to get these, I bought four whites and just like in the video they didn't disappoint.I will always refer Inktense for doll customization. They layer or draw on top of other colors smoothly. You can even blend them in lighter amounts to change the look of the color beneath. I might be able to do a whole face up without paint.Ooooooh, the white is amazing for putting details in the eyes, and lips, no matter what the final color of them will be.Derwent Inktense beat all the other brands. Faber Castel was surprisingly four or five of high-end artist pencils. Inktense was number one, which no one expected, because I hadn't even heard of them until the video. These are the best pencils and worth the price. Sorry I can't remember the customizer's name or I would have added a link. I wrote all of this because I read product reviews and wished someone had told me before I wasted money on other expensive pencils.Sending good vibes. I hope this was helpful.

Good first try with Derwent, bought more

I have to give these pencils a 5 star even though 2 out of the 72 set appear to be broken continuously throughout the entire length of the pencil as they keep breaking up while trying to sharpen them.It could have happened during the manufacturing process and for the sale price that I paid, it's no big deal for me. If a few more were in this condition, I would of course have returned the set.In trying them out directly on my paper, I noticed that the colors I wanted didn't really match up to the lead color, neither did the color coded tips. The colors are rich, but somewhat deceiving when you lay them down.However!...once activated with water, they really come to life and really show off their true vibrant colors.I'm sure that once a person gets familiar with the colors on their own, they will perform beautifully as they are soft and easy to lay down on your drawing surface.In my opinion, these pencils, as indicated, are designed for use as a "watercolor pencil" and should be used as such in order to get the full impact of the vibrant colors contained in the set. I find that they are very well pigmented and a little color goes a long way, especially when working on smaller areas and incorporating fine detail.I have yet to apply them to a full scale drawing of my own yet, but from what I have discovered so far, it looks like they'll come through with flying colors!*Please Note*:My one suggestion to anyone purchasing these quality pencils is to do yourself a favor and create a Color Swatch Chart of your own once you get them...you'll be glad that did.Take the time to do this as it will greatly benefit you once you begin using them as the colors really pop once activated with water.I'm looking forward to experimenting with these further and would certainly purchase them again

OK so to start with I’m an art supply fanatic. So when I saw these, I had to try. I bought the small pack first- to see if I liked them before diving in to the more varied and expensive pack of 24.They are very fun! The colors are intense. I work a great deal with watercolors, and sometimes watercolor pencils. These are similar to watercolor pencils. Although. Despite the hype— depending on how much used, they will “reactivate” when wetted after drying and I’ve noticed with the darker colors the pencil lines will still show after wetting and painting. Despite this though, I did like them a great deal— and did buy the 24 pack.